Cycle News

- o 00 0') and really duaty, and Graham got two good staru and had 45-second leads in a few minutes. Graham did good all year. but he isn't that good. By being in pretty good shape I came back and paaaed the third place guy but he ran me off the track, and I blew it and got fOUM. The aecond moto, Graham had a big lead again but Wolaink passed him, and I made up 40 aeconds and got aecond. So I got a aecond and founh. and I was kind of deprelled. Germany was next. Sunday morning I was fastelt in practice, which I'd say I was in at least six GPa. We had a largu cylinder and my bike was run- ning like a rocket. We had over three hours on it going wide open and then in the race it seized. No reason. Not a mechanical fault, not the mechanic's fault, not my fault. It must have been a pinhole air leak. We didn't have another big cylinder 10 we had to put on a amaIler size cylinder and piston. This left us with a different size motor for the second moto and DO time to jet it. So we guellCd _at the jetting, and it 20 was off 10 bad it was ready to seize. I had to cruiIe around and finiIbed ninth.. Then you went to England where you had _ the GP the last two JaIl. I won the tint mota. Then I got knocked down in the stan of the aecond moto. A rider slid into me and caught me under his bike and a big post marker. I had to kick his bike off to get going and I was back in old 25th again. But I got going reaIIy good. I IiIr.ed the track. The fiot moto was the easiest I had ever won. So I got up to founh place, and I'm passing some lapped Italian guy when he pulb over in front of me and Ir.nocks me off on a big gnarly uphill. That was the second time I hit the deck, and it was near the end of the moto. I just lost my drive then be- cause I had been catching up to the leaders. Graham won that moto and had two-one to win the overall. In Switzerland I again blew it. I had a decent stan. I came over a jump and I clipped one of the big wooden poles they use to mark the course. I hit it with my foot and brake pedal, and it threw my leg back off the peg and over the seat. I was doing a kind of a Han- nah, running alongside the bike, ~off the baclr.. And the throttle's OD. iO the bike's going a. hundred and dragging me. You have to pull your- aelf up without turning the throttle, which is pretty difficult at that point. So I pulled myself up and I go: Damn. what a save, I'm such a star! And just about that time I give it the throttle and the bike stops because the brake pedal got bent back. The brake locked up IOIid and I just lRDt: Oh. you dumb ...So I coasted. threw the bike down and kicked the pedal around and then I can't start the bike. I kick and kick until I'm dead last. I pulled over and aslr.ed Steve what place I was in. Thirty-eighth. I just rode around and finished. In the second moto I got founh. ''All these young kz'ds don't realize what 10 years ofracing does to you. It takes its toll. " Holland was more engine problems. We got another new cylinder like the one in England and it was workiDf ~ne and then it blew up. The same tbing, we had to change moton again and I got an eighth in the second moto. We went to Belgium, and by this time there were only two races left, and I was getting very deprelled. I knew I wasn't going to win the cham- pionship. And I kind of wanted to go home. I tried to ride, but I didn't do a very good job, a lOth and an eipth. Graham had already clinched It the week before we got to Luxembourg. At this point I just hated life and every- thing. Malherbe took the stan. I came from the back, passed everybody and won the fint moto. Then Malherbe took the start again alId I came from the back and just caught up to him. Another lap or two and I would have passed him, but I spun out in the grass. I was getting a little excited. I went back to about sixth place. And I had to pus Roger and Gerrit and Rond again and I ran out of time. So I finished second. So I got a one-two and Malherbe got a one-two and he won the overaIl, 10 I blew it by spin- ning it out. You WOD sis..-0lU of 18 fiDUhes.

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